Did someone call for brawls at the malls?

Published December 29, 2016

Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, December 29, 2016.

Mall brawls, it appears, are a thing now. A short-lived thing, we hope. We were surprised to see a large fight break out Monday at Cross Creek Mall, near the food court. It started with about eight teenagers, but quickly grew, eyewitnesses said. That sparked a mass flight of panicked shoppers from the crowded mall, some reporting they heard gunshots, although police subsequently found no evidence of it.

The disturbance was serious enough that the police and mall management shut the shopping facility down for the day. It reopened Tuesday, with heavier security and an expanded curfew that required unescorted visitors under 18 to leave by 5 p.m. each day this week.

Here's the amazing part: The Fayetteville brawl wasn't an isolated phenomenon. Similar disturbances broke out Monday at malls across the country - in New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, Illinois, Colorado, Arizona, Texas, Indiana and Connecticut.

Officials in all those states are trying to figure out if there was some connection or if it was an astonishing coincidence. The mayhem continued in some cities on Tuesday, including one fight in a Philadelphia mall that involved about 200 rowdy teenagers who had coordinated their arrival on the social medium Snapchat.

If this is a fad, we hope it dies fast. Mall security is difficult enough without contending with events like this. The expense is passed along to shoppers, ultimately.

One more thing. The troublemakers are teenagers, so we've got to ask: Where are their parents?

http://www.fayobserver.com/opinion/editorials/our-view-did-someone-call-for-the-brawls-at-the/article_3af13075-5ddf-50f8-be9f-cc8955a85b04.html

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